From plot to pot

At this time of year fresh vegetables from the allotment are scarce. I still have some leeks in so I decided to put them together with onions, chickpeas and potatoes harvested earlier in the autumn to make a simple but delicious winter soup.

This recipe is not precise so adjust it to your taste. I sliced up 2 small onions, 7 leeks and 3 medium potatoes and a clove of garlic. The onions and leeks are fried in a heavy duty pot in rapeseed oil until softened, 7-10 minutes.

Add the cubed potatoes and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes.

Then drain a tin of chickpeas and add to the pot. Stir in 1.5 pints of vegetable stock and bring to boil. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes with lid on.

 Season to taste and the soup is then ready to eat.

I prefer to blend half of the soup and then mix it back in. This gives a creamy consistency which is perfect for serving with homemade bread rolls.

Has bean hummus

This is a good way of using up excess beans whether they are from the garden or from a tin. On this occasion I used a tin of red kidney beans but have also used butterbeans, broad beans  and french beans.

1. Place one drained can of beans or two cups (if using fresh) in the blender.

2. Add one clove of garlic, two teaspoons of lemon juice, two teaspoons of cumin and two tablespoons of tahini. 

3. Blend until smooth consistency is attained.

4. Taste. Add salt and pepper if necessary.

5. If hummus is too dry add sesame oil or liquid from can. Reblend to acheive desired consistency.

6. If you are using white beans a tablespoon of tomato puree can be added to give a nice pink colour.

7. Refrigerate until required. Will keep for a week at <5 degrees. (Not in my house though!)

More jam!

July is the month when all the hard workcomes to fruition, literally and we end up with masses of produce.
With not much effort at all I have managed to produce 10 lbs of raspberries this year after the local bird population had eaten about 5lbs.

We have made a few summer puddings but the bulk of the berries have gone into raspberry jam. I use the Good Housekeeping Cookbook recipe with one modification - reduced sugar.

1. Wash 12 jars, rinse thoroughly and place in the oven at 100oC
2. Put 7.5 lbs of washed raspberries in a large jampan and bring to boil.
3. Simmer in it's own juice gently for 20 minutes until the fruit is really soft.
4. Add 5lbs of granulated sugar, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
5. Bring to the boil and boil for 5-10 minutes until the jam has reached setting point.
6. To determine the setting point place a teaspoon of jam on a cold saucer. When the jam is cold push your finger across it. If the jam wrinkles then the setting point has been attained.
7. Fill the hot jars with jam and seal, leaving a half inch gap at the top.
8. As the jam cools the seal will become secure and the jars are ready for labelling.
9. Jam produced in this way is good for at least 6 months and usually for a lot longer.

Cold nights!

We are coming to the end of a fairly cool dry month of April and winter has re-appeared. This week the temperature has dipped below freezing on consecutive nights. Time to panic as I have tender plants in 2 separate greenhouses plus the polytunnel.

I found an old paraffin lamp in the shed which I used in my greenhouse. My neighbour lent me a heater to keep my plants in his greenhouse warm which just left the polytunnel on the allotment.

My neighbour Richard suggested 180 hour candles! Simple says he. Fill a container with liquid lard and then just before it solidifies pop in a wax candle. The lard feeds the candle and makes it last ...180 hours. This can then be placed under an upturned earthenware plant pot as a frost deterrent.

It's time for corn - sweet!

Growing in the Yorkshire Dales can be tricky with most veg so it was quite an adventure to try sweetcorn this season. Twelve plants outdoors and eighteen in the polytunnel.

Last time I tried it in the tunnel the plants were pushing at the roof before the cobs had formed. This year I tried an earlier cropping variety and the indoor plants had cobs on them by the middle of July. I waited until this week, the last one of the month and the results so far have been really heartening.

 

The big advantage of home grown is being able to eat them within hours of harvesting. After five minutes in boiling water the cobs are sweet and tender.

February

February is still deep mid-winter here in the Yorkshire Dales. Overwintering vegetables in the polytunnel are fairly static at this time of year. However now that January is out of the way I can start to think about starting vegetables for maincropping this coming season. This involves the use of my heated propagator.

The first seeds into the propagator are Musselburgh leeks. I put them in deep pots or yoghurt cartons so that there is plenty of room for the roots to develop. No more than approx 25 seeds per pot. The seeds will germinate in 3-4 days and will be peeping through after a week. At that point I take them out of the propagator and put them on a windowsill at approx 16oC. In 3 or 4 weeks the pots can go out into the unheated greenhouse.

Next up are the onion sets. I normally use Sturon as my main crop. They tend to make good sized onions and store very well. This year I have also started Stuttgart sets so I wiil be able to compare the 2 ( providing that I remember which is which)

I purchased both types at Twin Locks Garden Centre, Gargrave. The come in bags of approx 50 at £1 per bag. They have been potted into individual plantpots in the cold greenhouse using general purpose compost.

Each set is then covered with compost. Once the sets have started to grow they will be transferred to the polytunnel on the allotment ( probably in 2-3 weeks)  and then hardened off for planting out in mid-March. Last year, once they were planted out, they were attacked by rabbits which ate the new growth. Once the onions were protected by a mesh fence they grew back and went on to be an excellent crop (for which I give the rabbits no credit.)

Surplus produce

During the busy summer and autumn I spend a lot of time saving fruit and veg for the leaner winter months. The summer of 2016 has been particularly bountiful resulting in a freezer full of  fruit and veg. This included 4lbs of blackberries! Fortunately I found a great recipe for jam which meant I could use up some apples as well.

Bramble and Apple Jam

4lbs blackberries
1.5lbs apples (prepared)
4lbs granulated sugar
2 tbs lime juice (lemon will do)
0.5 pt water.

Add all ingredients to a jampan and bring to the boil, stirring frequently and ensuring that all gran. sugar dissolves.

When jam is boiling reduce heat and simmer for approx 45 minutes. Apply the wrinkle test to the jam. Put a teaspoon of jam on a cold plate and move it with your finger. If the jam wrinkles it is ready for bottling. If not, continue the simmer and then retest. When the  jam is ready for bottling scoop it into hot jars and apply the lid whilst still warm.

If you do not want your jam too sweet reduce the sugar to 3.5lbs. This ensures that the predominant taste is of brambles. This jam will keep for up to a year ( in our house it will be gone in 6 months.) Enjoy.

Tagine

This is a nice warming winter dish with a taste of North Africa. Felt like we were on holiday when we were eating it!

 

Ingredients

 

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 large onion, diced

2 tbsp. veg oil

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

450 ml veg stock

12 dried apricots, chopped

2 red peppers chopped

200g tinned chickpeas

1 tsp honey

3 tbsp. chopped coriander

2 tbsp. chopped mint

 

Fry the onion in the oil until softened.(5 minutes)  Add the squash and spices and fry for 5 minutes. Add the stock and honey, season well, cover and simmer for 8 minutes.

 

Add the peppers and cook  until tender. Stir in the coriander and mint.

 

 

We served it with couscous:

 

Pour 450 ml of boiling water over 250g of couscous. Add 1 tsp of harissa paste and 1/2 tsp salt plus 200g tinned chickpeas. mix, cover and leave for 5 munutes. Sprinkle with toasted flaked almonds and serve.

 

 





You can vary the recipe to suite your taste. Prunes or sultanas can be used instead of  apricots. If you prefer your Tagine a bit hotter then add half a deseeded jalapeno pepper with the onion at stage one.

 

Enjoy!

 

 



Spicy Xmas chutney

Chutney is a great way of using up surplus veg from the plot. In the summer I make tomato and courgette chutney when they are in season. At this time of year carrots onions, beetroot and apples are aplenty so this recipe (with variations) is ideal and the resulting jars of product can be either eaten, stored or given as festive presents.

Recipe:

3 carrots, grated.
3 beetroot diced
3 onions diced
3 apples, peeled and grated
3 oranges - zest and fruit, chopped.
2 tbsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp ground cloves
700ml red wine vinegar
600g sugar
100g sultanas
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 jalapeno pepper, diced.

Add all the ingredients to a large pan.

Bring to boil stirring frequently.

Once the mixture is boiling reduce heat and boil gently for approximately one hour. Stir occasionally and check spice levels. If chutney requires more heat add a teaspoon of ground ginger.

After an hour remove from heat. Check beetroot is tender. Bottle chutney whilst hot into warm sterile jars and close lids tightly.

Do not use chutney until it is at least one month old. This recipe will improve with age and will keep for at least twelve months. Enjoy!

Deja vu.

Once again it is winter on the allotment - time for planning and overwintering those veg which will grow in the polytunnel.

This year I am growing garlic, onions, broad beans and peas in the tunnel through the winter. Last year's onions (Radar) were ready in May and hence were out in time to allow successional cropping.

Outside I still have sprouts and leeks. Other plot holders have good displays of winter brassicas. Kale is very popular on our site as you can see.

This coming season will be a bit of a departure for me as I plan to grow sweet corn in the tunnel. It would probably grow outside but our site is very susceptible to wind damage so the tunnel is a safer bet. I have chosen Earlibird F1.

Our allotment association is a member of the Kings Seeds Scheme. This means that we buy good quality seeds and earn cashback for our funds in the process. Other seeds already earmarked for the tunnel include Tumbler F1 tomatoes, Cobra climbing French beans and Burpless Tasty Green F1 cucumber.

Winter's icy fingers

Deep into November and most gardeners will not be doing much other than sitting by the fire planning next year's horticultural campaign. After all, there is nothing happening on the allotment.

With the sun low in the sky the temperature was zero at 10 a.m. this morning. The allotments were deserted. Just the right time to check on what is growing in the polytunnel.

 

 

 

I am told that size does not matter but in the case of tunnels then the bigger the better. This is because the bigger ones do not get too hot in the summer months, and from a northern gardener's point of view the growing season is much extended. I was lucky enough to get a plot with a tunnel already on it, 10'x25', and the price that I paid the outgoing tenant nine years ago has turned out to be a real bargain. I planted beetroot inside in June and am expecting to be still cropping at Christmas.

 

I always grow Boltardy. In the past the outdoor ones have been hit and miss depending on the weather and the field mice. This is my second attempt at indoor beets and the results are good. The additional watering is more than compensated for by the fresh beetroot on the table every week.

 

I also sowed spring onions and mixed leaf in September. The mild autumn has meant that the leaf has regenerated after the first crop and we have now had fresh salad stuff for the last eight weeks!

 

 

Elsewhere in the tunnel I have removed the tomato plants, replenished the bed with well rotted compost from the heap and have planted garlic and onions. The onion sets were a gift from a fellow plotter - Radar - so I am hoping that they will be ready before the maincrop go in outside in the late spring.

 

 

Outside the brassica cage took a beating from the gales last week but its main function, to protect my brassicas from marauding woodpigeons is still OK. Sprouts, caulis and swede will soon be our main fresh veg from the plot.

 

 

Not forgetting, of course,  my favourite winter vegetable - the leek! For the last 5 years I have only grown Musselburgh as my neighbour's leeks always did better than mine. I asked him why that was and he said Musselburgh and chicken manure pellets - a winning combination.  Using poo pellets means that I can plant the leeks quite close together and still get decent results. Musselburgh is a very hardy variety which is what we need in the Dales!

 

 

We eat about three leeks a week so this patch will see us through the winter providing that I can get them out of the ground when it freezes - my favourite winter sport.